Why advertise the Ring? And faking death

[triinum]

No: HPFGUIDX 150544

> Pippin:
> The idea seems to be that Riddle wants to make seven and only seven
> horcruxes. Making more might weaken the spell, even if some of the
> orginal seven have been destroyed. 

Yes, this would explain it alright.

> The ring was definitely a signal to Slughorn. Dumbledore was letting
> him know that he hadn't been fooled by the fake memory and allowing
> him to suspect that he'd found a horcrux despite Sluggy's lack of 
> cooperation. 

That would mean that Sluggy knew the ring was a horcrux. It's not
impossible, they may have discussed it with Dumbledore long ago.

This in turn implies that Slug is even more in DD's confidence than
immediately obvious. Hm, where was he the night the DEs attacked
Hogwarts? Could he have something to do with faking DD's death? (okay,
okay, I know probably most people here would say it wasn't faked. I'm
not sure either, but I think the matter is worth investigating). 

The biggest problem I see with faked death scenario is that it needs a
third party from Hogwarts to carry out. The most logical one would be
Hagrid, for he dealt with the body. But Hagrid's reaction to the news
of his death is just so genuine and believable; I can't buy him being
*such* a good actor. But what if Sluggy helped him taking care about
the body? Filling him in about the scheme sometime before the funeral?
Having Hagrid clueless and therefore acting believably could have been
part of the plan.

And Sluggy does know all about the Draught of Living Death.